Easy truffles made with boxed brownie mix or boxed cake are kind of my jam right now. Okay, to be honest, I love any dessert I can make with a boxed cake/brownie mix hack. Whether you’ve got a family at home or a busy work schedule, using a boxed mix hack can save you SO. MUCH. TIME. And no one knows the difference – promise!
I made these Brownie & Cheesecake Truffles to take to my family’s Christmas celebration, and we didn’t bring any home! Success!
These are the perfect bite-sized dessert, and it’s easy to encourage everyone to have at least one!
Brownie & Cheesecake Truffles – the Ingredients
This is a simple, only-need-a-few-ingredients recipe! You’ll need:
- a boxed brownie mix + ingredients on the back of the box (for me, that’s 2 eggs and 2/3 cup of oil)
- a block of cream cheese
- powdered sugar
- a package of chocolate-flavored almond bark candy coating
- sprinkles and decorations
Grab your simple ingredients and let’s get baking!
Making the Brownie Cheesecake Truffles
Make your brownies according to the directions on the back of the box for a 13×9 pan of brownies. For me, that meant mixing up my brownie mix with 1/4 cup of water, 2 eggs and 2/3 cup of oil. Then I poured it into a baking dish and baked them for about 30 minutes.
Remove your brownies from the oven and let them cool completely. While they cool, set your block of cream cheese out to soften.
When your cream cheese is soft, stir together the cream cheese and 3/4 cup of powdered sugar in a medium bowl.
Once the brownies are completely cooled (they’ll melt your cream cheese otherwise), use your hands to break the brownies into small chunks in a large mixing bowl. Scoop the sweetened cream cheese into the bowl and use your hands to completely mix everything together.
When everything is well combined, grab small handfuls of the mixture and roll into 1 inch brownie balls. You should get 24-30 brownie balls out of the bowl of brownie-cream cheese mix.
Refrigerate the brownie cheesecake balls for at least an hour to help them stay together for dipping. I usually refrigerate mine overnight and dip them the next day.
Dipping (and Decorating) the Brownie & Cheesecake Truffles
Melt a one pound package of chocolate almond bark in the microwave in 30 seconds increments, stirring in between, until fully melted. Or you can learn how easy it is to temper chocolate here.
Get your cold brownie & cheesecake balls out of the refrigerator and grab two forks. Drop two or three balls in the bowl of chocolate, and use a fork to coat them completely. With one fork, scoop up the chocolate covered brownie & cheesecake truffle, and tap it a few times against the edge of the bowl. Use the second fork to help slide it off the first fork onto aluminum foil spread on a baking sheet.
Have your sprinkles or nonpareils or whatever you’re decorating with ready. After you’ve dipped two or three balls, sprinkle the decorations on top. If you wait more than a few truffles, the first ones will be too hard for any decorations to stick to them.
Dip and decorate all of the brownie & cheesecake truffles. Then, you can either leave them on the counter to harden for 30 minutes or so, or place them in the refrigerator to harden even faster.
Storing the Brownie & Cheesecake Truffles
If you’re going to serve the truffles within a few days, you can bag or box them in an airtight container or ziploc bag and store them in the refrigerator.
If you want to make them ahead of time, you can put store them in the freezer in an airtight container for up to three months.
Undipped brownie truffles can also be stored in the freezer for up to three months. Keep frozen and dip and decorate the brownie & cheesecake truffles when you’re ready to serve them.
Tips, Tricks and Substitutions
Can I use chocolate cake mix in place of brownie mix? You could definitely use cake mix instead, with a couple disclaimers. Your cake is going to be puffier than the brownies, so I’d only add about 3/4 of the cake to the cream cheese mixture and check to see if you need more. The taste is also going to be somewhat different – just like the difference between eating a cake and a brownie.
Can I use granulated sugar in place of powdered sugar? You’re not baking the cream cheese, so I would not use granulated sugar. It’s going to have a grainy texture that some people might not love.
Can I use chocolate chips or baking/melting chocolate in place of chocolate flavored almond bark? Sure! It doesn’t matter what kind of chocolate you use to dip the brownie cheesecake truffles. But, do note, chocolate chips set up softer than almond bark, so you’re definitely going to want to put your dipped truffles in the refrigerator or freezer to make sure they get hard.
Brownie Cheesecake Truffles
Ingredients
- boxed brownie mix + ingredients listed on back of box usually eggs and oil
- 1 lb. package chocolate-flavored almond bark candy coating
- 1 8 oz block cream cheese
- 1/2 c. powdered sugar
- decorations: sprinkles nonpareils, etc
Instructions
- Prepare boxed brownies according to directions on box.
- Bake brownies, also according to directions.
- Remove brownies from oven and let cool completely.
- While brownies are cooling, set out block of cream cheese to soften.
- When cream cheese is soft, stir powdered sugar into cream cheese.
- When brownies are cool, remove them from the pan and crumble them by hand into a large bowl.
- Spoon cream cheese mixture into brownies and use your hands or a large spoon to mix and mash them together.
- Roll the mixture into one inch balls and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between.
- Drop two truffles in the bowl of chocolate, and use a fork to coat them completely. With one fork, scoop up chocolate covered brownie cheesecake truffle, and tap it a few times against edge of bowl. Use second fork to help slide truffles onto aluminum foil spread on a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle truffles with decorations after dipping every two or three. Don't wait until the end, because your candy coating will be too hard.
- Store truffles in the refrigerator (because they contain cream cheese).
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I’m diabetic so I made these using dunkin hines keto fudge brownie mix (the others are bad), 1/3fat cream cheese and a mix of keto powdered sugar & sugar free cheesecake (vanilla works too) pudding mix and a little milk to loosen it then dipped them into lily’s sugar free melted chocolate…so delicious and doesn’t spike my sugar and it’s keto friendly!